Analytical applications generally show content, such as business information including sales, inventory, and other relevant data, as charts and/or tables representing underlying datasets. In some instances, subsets of a large, underlying set of data can be generated such that specific characteristics or filtered criteria of a larger dataset are represented instead. Within an analytical application, the reports (e.g., charts and tables) used to express various types or sets of data can be multiple in type, form, and criteria, based on user requests, predetermined sets of information generally known to be useful to a set of users, and sets of related data. Further, different types of reports may be used, including spreadsheets, pie charts, line graphs, bar charts, and any other suitable means for illustrating datasets or defined subsets thereof.
Touchscreen and multi-touch devices provide methods for entering information through the use of a pointer, finger, or other touch-based device or tool, as well as through previous tools, such as a standard mouse or hardware-based keyboard. Multi-touch devices, specifically, provide users with the ability to apply multiple finger gestures simultaneously onto a visual display, such as a graphical user interface on a touchscreen, to send complex commands to the device. The use of touch inputs with analytical data provides immersive, interactive, and intuitive methods and procedures for selecting, manipulating, and navigating reports.
In some cases, a user may want to perform an action with respect to a selected portion of a report, such as by dragging the selected portion and dropping it to another area of the touchscreen display (e.g., as he or she navigates among multiple reports). Note, however, that such an action may be performed in various contexts (e.g., depending on where he or she dropped the selected portion of the report) which may influence how the action should be interpreted. Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide systems and methods that facilitate an intuitive interface in connection with touchscreen report navigation.